Perm (11.2010)

Founded in 1723, Perm is a heavily industrialized region with more than 80 plants and factories. The easternmost city on the western continent, this city of almost 1,000,000 was closed to foreigners for decades due to it importance as an armaments manufacturing center. During WWII much of Soviet industry and many cultural artifacts were moved to Perm as the city, which lies 866 miles east of Moscow, was deemed far enough away from the Front. Many artists and men of letters, including the Kirov Ballet Troupe, were also evacuated to the region. Perm's darker past revolves around its notoriety as the home of Perm-36, one of the USSR's harshest & most infamous Gulags. Closed only in 1987, Perm-36 is the only gulag in Russia which remains standing. Today it serves as a memorial and education center.

Still a manufacturing powerhouse, today's Perm is imbued with a new vibrancy as it positions itself as a burgeoning avant-garde cultural center. Will Perm's cultural revolution turn it into the next Bilbao? Though difficult to predict, the city pulsates with a new energy that young people, in particular, find difficult to ignore. Whereas 60% of Perm's youth previously wanted to leave for the bright lights of Moscow, a common problem in Russia's regions, now only 8% think of leaving. In Russia's regions, that's enough to be called a revolution.